COURSE HERO
Literary Infographics
VISUAL STUDY GUIDES
On my first week at Column Five, I jumped at the chance to work on an infographic based on a literary classic (1984, for those curious) – one in the first of many batches to come. Working closely with our team comprised of our design director, account director, several producers, in-house and freelance designers, we saw over 600 illustrated infographics to completion for Course Hero, an online study platform for students.
Scaling this many pieces of content with such a bespoke illustration style is no easy feat. It took lots of planning and strategy by our team to develop and stick to a structured schedule, develop efficiencies, and maintain a rich visual quality that tell a story.
With each batch of graphics, we were testing and breaking the system we had built: each graphic is unique, yet still belongs in the same family. Like eyebrows, these infographics aren’t twins or clones, but sisters and cousins.
And so week by week, we juggled designing and reviewing infographics, giving feedback to maintain quality, literary accuracy, and still have a stand-alone shine.
I helped expand upon the original style guide by our design director and producer, iterating as the project progressed: adding new genre icons, troubleshooting SVG exports, ironing out common issues, and setting the bar for character illustration and emotional expression.
The infographics primarily live on Course Hero’s website, accompanying study guides. They are also shared on Pinterest, where they’ve gained thousands of shares and repins driving traffic to Course Hero’s many resources.
ROLE
Art Direction
Strategy + Planning
Design
CREDITS
Agency: Column Five
Producer: Sara Barbour, Monisha Bajaj, Jonathan Sweet
Design Director: Renee Granillo
+ a big thank you to C5 Design and all of our amazing freelance designers.
You can read more about the project in Column Five’s case study.
